Mexico Apparently Takes Harder Iraq Tone

Published 7:00 pm, Monday, February 24, 2003

President Vicente Fox, whose country holds a key vote on the U.N. Security Council, appeared to take a slightly harder tone toward Iraq on Tuesday as he addressed U.S. and Mexican businessmen.

"The only path toward peace is the disarmament of Iraq," Fox said. The world wants peace, but only disarmament by the Iraqis can ensure peace."

Mexico has not yet said whether it will support a U.S.-British-Spanish resolution in the Security Council that could be seen as authorizing a rapid strike against Iraq. Nor has it committed to a French-German-Russian measure to give U.N. weapons inspectors more time and resources to work.

In recent weeks, Mexican officials have repeatedly suggested that the weapons inspectors should be given more time to hunt for arms of mass destruction in Iraq and they have insisted that any action be sanctioned by the Security Council.

However, Mexico has also been wary of openly challenging the United States, which accounts for about 85 percent of its trade.

Fox's comments Tuesday did not contradict earlier statements, but they sounded a less pacifistic tone.

On Tuesday, Fox said Mexico supports "the multilateral efforts to achieve the elimination of weapons of mass destruction in Iraq, and so that this nation complies fully" with Security Council resolutions.

"It is urgent that Iraq complies with the demands of the inspectors to immediately dismantle prohibited missiles," Fox said.

Earlier, Iraqi President Saddam Hussein said in interview with CBS television that he might not accept U.N. orders to destroy his Al Samoud 2 missiles, arguing that they were within permitted limits.

U.S. Ambassador Tony Garza, seemed cheered by Fox's speech

"I am very much in agreement with the president in his declarations against terrorism, with the threat that Saddam Hussein represents," Garza said.

He denied widespread reports in the Mexican press that the United States was pressuring Mexico to support a resolution that could authorize a rapid attack on Iraq.

"It is not pressure," Garza said. "It is part of the process of dialogue."

On Monday, Fox's top Cabinet aide, Interior Secretary Santiago Creel, said Mexico was continuing to press for peace.

"Our proposal is clear: we win the war against terrorism without losing the peace," Creel said, vowing that Mexico would "project its pacifistic vocation."